Down their end, Schalke are said to want to put an end to the loan early since he has ‘no future’ at the club.

Contracted at Stamford Bridge until 2020, next summer will be Chelsea’s last chance to make some of their initial £18m expenditure back, and they’ll probably be hoping a good six months somewhere else will help his price go up.

There’s been no mention of the Blues’ wishes in all this, but our guess is they’ll be open to a return if they can immediately send Baba back out somewhere where he’ll play regularly.